Cuban pleads guilty to growing pot, forging credit cards

LOCKPORT – A Cuban man, in the United States legally for three years, pleaded guilty Friday to manufacturing fake credit cards and growing marijuana in his Lockport home.

Through a Spanish-language interpreter, Jose M. Cabrera, 38, now of Howard Avenue, Buffalo, admitted to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and second-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

He was living on Academy Lane when State Police raided his basement July 25 and seized more than 10 pounds of marijuana and a batch of phony credit cards.

Cabrera faces up to 9½ years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 8 by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas. Cabrera also must pay $632 in restitution for his charges with the bogus cards.